£1 billion of your cash to save Jag

£1 billion of your cash to save Jag

We will do everything that we can reasonably do to support the industry

Alistair Darling

Desperate car bosses have been locked in secret talks with ministers to stop the huge firm from going under.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson warned it would be “devastating” for the economy if Jaguar went bust at the cost of 15,000 jobs.

But he stressed that Indian owners Tata were mainly responsible for its survival and warned the Government did not have “an open chequebook” to bail out ailing companies.

And he warned that if Jaguar Land Rover fell it would have a destructive knock-on effect on dozens of UK firms.

He said: “It is not just the car makers themselves, it is the huge supply chain of many small and medium-sized enterprises that supply that very important manufacturing process. Whilst we are prepared to look, and prepared to help if we can, we don’t have an open cheque-book for private companies to come to us and for us to bail them out.”

But Shadow Business Secretary Alan Duncan said: “What companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan need is credit help, not unconditional bailouts, to prevent those companies which are viable in the long-term going to the wall in the short-term.

“If we lose skills and manufacturers because of Labour’s mismanagement of the economy, we will find that business is lost abroad for ever.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “If the Government does decide to give this taxpayer-funded help to one company it sets a precedent and it will be very difficult to refuse that assistance to other companies.”

Jaguar Land Rover chief executive David Smith said his firm will lay off around 850 IT and engineering staff by the end of the year.

He said: “The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders have made it clear that the situation in the UK is a national emergency requiring urgent action.”

He added that Jaguar Land Rover played a critical role in the car industry in the UK, supporting up to 75,000 jobs and spending around £3bn a year on research and development. And the Chancellor Alistair Darling said the “primary responsibility” for finance lay with Tata.

Mr Darling said: “We will do everything that we can reasonably do to support the industry.

“We also have to have regard to the interests of the taxpayer – that is of critical importance.”